Gas turbine engines are used to power aircraft, watercraft, power generators, and the like. Gas turbine engines typically include a compressor, a combustor, and a turbine. The compressor compresses air drawn into the engine and delivers high-pressure air to the combustor. In the combustor, fuel is mixed with the high-pressure air and is ignited. Products of the combustion reaction in the combustor are directed into the turbine where work is extracted to drive the compressor and, sometimes, an output shaft. Leftover products of the combustion are exhausted out of the turbine and may provide thrust in some applications.
In some applications, wave rotor combustors ignite air and fuel as part of an engine core that powers a fan assembly or a drive shaft of the engine. Typical wave rotor combustors include an inlet assembly, an outlet assembly spaced apart from the inlet assembly along a central axis of the wave rotor combustor, and a rotor drum positioned therebetween. The inlet assembly directs a flow of air and fuel into rotor passages formed in the rotor drum. The rotor drum receives and combusts the fuel-air mixture to produce hot high-pressure products as part of a combustion process as the rotor drum rotates about the central axis relative to the inlet assembly and the outlet assembly. The outlet assembly directs the hot high-pressure products out of the rotor drum into the turbine.